Terror outfit’s post warns Q-Branch

CHENNAI: Intelligence agencies are probing a Telegram post put up by Al Hind Brigade -- an organisation that allegedly supports the Islamic State -- threatening to take revenge on Special Cell Police and Q Branch officers. Officials suspect that continuous crackdown against men pledging allegiance to ISIS in south India could have kindled anger among many outfits, resulting in this social media post. The post, written in Tamil, was surrounded by two AK-47 guns, bullets and grenades. The note kept in between the ammunition read - “To the dogs of the Delhi special cell and Q Branch. We are watching you and shall respond soon. Keep waiting”.

Though unclear as to whom it was addressed, sources in Q branch told Express that the post appeared almost two weeks after Delhi Police, on January 8, arrested Khaja Moideen, the IS outfit head in Tamil Nadu and an Al Hind Trust coordinator. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Q Branch had arrested three IS sympathisers who aided SSI Wilson’s murder in Kanniyakumari. Several teams have been formed to identify the men in-charge of the post and they believe that the ones behind it are IS sympathisers. 

A senior Q Branch official said, “Since it is written in Tamil, we suspect hands of some from the State. However, the handwriting suggests that it might have been written by someone who never learned the language. These are only suspicions and we will know details only after a thorough investigation.”Al Hind Brigade came to the limelight when it claimed responsibility to the murder of Kamalesh Tiwari, a fringe Hindu group leader from Uttar Pradesh few months ago. Q Branch had earlier said that a few men arrested by TN Q -Branch officials in Bengaluru were part of the Al Hind Trust. 

Sources said that the intelligence wing believes the trust had supported many IS sympathisers across the globe to travel to Syria to fight and create the Islamic Caliphate.C Khaja Moideen alias Abdullah Muthaleef (47), a native of Cuddalore, was arrested in July 2014 for murdering KP Suresh Kumar, a Hindu Munnani leader. He was enraged after Suresh Kumar allegedly made a hate speech in a public meeting in Avadi in 2012. An Emir or commander of the banned outfit - Tamil Nadu IS, Khaja Moideen was entrusted with the responsibility of  recruiting youth to the IS. 

He is a former SIMI activist. He was lodged in the Puzhal prison, but later transferred to Salem jail after being involved in an attack on the jail staff in 2015.The group, hailing from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, had been indulging in IS activities by forming the terror group, raising and receiving funds, organising camps, recruiting and training people and facilitating their travel to Syria to join the IS. U Haja Fakkruddin, a Cuddalore native, is the first man from the State believed to have joined the IS, after leaving his lucrative job in Singapore. He is still believed to be in Syria.